Ch. 62 A World at War… Twice

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Hello, heads up that this is a power through chapter as I try to get through the last century before things people know about DxD should start to happen. WW1 & 2 getting done.

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The recruitment of Florence Nightingale was remarkably similar to Da Vinci's.

She would essentially be spending her remaining time on Earth, setting her affairs in order and live her 'life' as she saw fit thanks to not exactly having to fear 'dying'. Much of said 'life' would involve solidifying her legacy and using available knowledge to somewhat improve things such as Hospital planning and sanitary measures, continuing her work on her guide books, and trying to help nurses she deemed to have the correct 'spirit' move further along their path.

Nightingale would periodically visit the Underworld properly to gain a better understanding of what she is getting into.

The woman had felt some shocks regarding my origins and the fact that I am married to a Satan, even if she was a goddess now, while having my 'home' in the Underworld. But she also grew respectful once she understood the significance of the Neutral Ground and the level practiced in terms of medicinal arts there.

And so far, I would say Florence Nightingale should fit quite well with my Pantheon/Peerage. She shares a similar drive as Da Vinci and Musashi, something they respected even if her's was towards medicine, Mana, Altera, Ciri and Jeanne found her to be an understanding figure, Medea and Scáthach enjoyed having a new student to train, Diana welcomed her warmly as a new sister, and Moka and Milim were simply getting to know her in their own ways at the moment.

From what I could tell, my new pawn would likely live till around the historical point I knew, which was until after The Great War. Her body might be slowly failing with age and from the life she's lived, but her Sacred Gear and spirit would help see her through for a few decades still.

This doesn't mean i was going to let her 'waste' her time completely however. Florence would be 'educated' in the theoretical aspects of medicine and about the supernatural world during these years, mainly because she won't really be able to learn magic yet or do any physical training until she was properly reincarnated.

Of course she wouldn't be allowed to give too much due to various reasons, mainly ones regarding a 'Neutral' faction giving such knowledge to a single party and some political nonsense I couldn't be bothered to deal with, but Florence would still advance things by a decade or two when she officially 'died'.

And so, with my little trips on Earth done for now, I began falling back into a little routine as the world inevitably marched towards war.

Even before the turn of the century, it could be felt by those who knew what to look for. Tensions were rising, weapons had been developing too fast, militaries expanding, and all it would take is the right match to light the fire.

Incidentally, my son and daughter had gotten embroiled in such a matter.

Apparently it wasn't just Dr. Frankenstein who existed in this world, evident by the European wide 'game' played by one Sherlock Holmes and Professor James Moriarty.

It was quite funny to realize that both men were aware of the supernatural world but had concealed their genius to not come under the scrutiny of devils. Both had quite a bit of pride and didn't particularly take well to being enslaved, a result of the reputation peerages had thanks to the many, many, many cunts among devils. That and they enjoyed using their intellects among humans so far.

The only reason I was not aware of these two was because I generally don't use my abilities to gaze through [Space/Time] too much since it makes things boring, letting myself gain information through the networks I have access to instead. I only use those parts of my abilities for more important things, choosing the potential risks over becoming one of those seers who basically go insane from what they see, turn into an all-controlling monster, or somehow develop a real god complex.

Apart from that, the various sources I have access to likely didn't place much importance regarding the sporadic activities of a private detective and were only really able to learn about Moriarty once we began taken control in the Underworld.

This is actually one of the things that pushed the criminal mastermind to look for an edge over those 'encroaching on his web', going so far as to start using occult and supernatural means to advance his agenda. As a result, I sent my children out to experience such high level plays at low risk, but making them conceal their appearances and strength so no one would bitch about my kids getting some experience in someone else's territory.

The reports were frankly, quite funny at times.

-Somewhere near the borders of Germany

"Why do I have to ride this blasted thing?!" A clearly irritated Scarlet yelled out as her magnificent stead, a pony, kept running as it pleased regardless of her instructions.

"It's either that or the toboggan Sherlock is currently vomiting from!" Kal cheerfully answered as he found some amusement in his sister's struggles.

The two were currently disguised as a pair of siblings with pitch black hair, Kal sporting a short and spiky look and white skin, while his sister had long and straight hair tied in a ponytail, both with their father's green eyes, with less handsome/beautiful faces to not give themselves away as supernatural, even though they were still rather attractive specimens.

Scarlet looked over to the usually rather well put together man currently heaving over said toboggan, looking rather pale and with unkempt hair.

"Just give me your horse then!" She shouted at her brother as the pony trotted along as it pleased.

"No can do sis. You lost Rock Paper Scissors, so you have to live with the consequences." Kal teased as he was usually the one on the other end of the teasing, hence he was enjoying himself.

He might be the first born and stronger sibling, but having a harem that got along well with his sister could be quite the nightmare at times.

"I will have my revenge!" She yelled in response as her far too independent ride went ahead of everyone as she resisted picking up the stubborn little beast and just running the rest of the way.

-Back to Lith

So yeah, pretty good stuff to chuckle at and share with my girls.

By the end of their adventure, Scarlet had grow to dislike ponies and Kal managed somehow recruit Sherlock as his Queen thanks to actually reviving Irene Adler herself as his pawn after Moriarty's tying of loose ends. That's actually how my kids embroiled themselves in everything in the first place. After that, one Doctor Watson joined the supernatural world as well, with his own wife, although neither joining Kal's peerage.

Miss Adler was a world-class criminal and held an interesting Sacred Gear named Elusive Fact, like pretty much all extreme talents of humanity, which held mind and space related abilities. It allowed her to phase through things, meld with shadows and subtly influence the senses of others. She was made a pawn due to circumstances, but would likely shift into a Knight in combat due to these supportive abilities combining with her mastery over knives and firearms, needing only go through the proper training to bring her up to snuff. Afterwards she could have fun screwing over devils, fallen and the supernatural world as long she didn't bring too much heat towards Azaroth.

Sherlock himself held an immense amount of potential for magic and was a skilled martial artist, thus fit very well for the Queen position thanks to his keen mind and understanding of 'people'. His own Gear, Symphonic Violin, actually revolves around music and sound, making it one with a lot of room to develop, especially once he learns from Azaroth's understanding of such things. Holmes would fit right at home working as an consulting detective on a much wider scale, bringing many benefits once he was properly established.

But it would seem my son had quite a powerful link to this era, going so far as to recruit two more individuals he encountered thanks to his Queen, as Holmes continued to live in London for quite some time.

The first was his first Bishop, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, a female occultist in history, now an actual magical prodigy of tremendous abilities for witchcraft, sorcery and more occult magics.

The young woman had come under fire from the church and the magician organization RosenKreuzer due to her abilities and areas of research. She escaped and stumbled onto Holmes, who helped her vanish, later coming under Kal due to falling for Sherlock.

That last bit sparked an interesting struggle between Irene Adler and Helena.

And the second new recruit was someone who even gave Holmes trouble. Someone who rivaled Holmes in a different sense than Moriarty.

If Sherlock Holmes was to be synonymous with the title 'Detective', then my son's second Knight was to be synonymous with the title of 'Gentleman Thief'.

The presumably French, Arsène Lupin.

A man who managed to even infiltrate the Vatican and Royal palaces, evading all forms of law enforcement from either mundane or magical.

He was a well versed magician and world-class thief even without that. Ingenious, meticulous and fiercely intelligent, but also very honorable and righteous for a thief. His position as a Knight comes from his agile and dexterous nature, coupled with his great skills with his cane-sword.

Lupin's key to his continued success however, was his Sacred Gear known as Chemin Vitré, which allows the man to manipulate [Glass] and use it as a medium to 'see' and 'travel' if necessary. An interesting set of abilities for sure.

My son somehow succeeded in bringing him into the fold, making it so that he now had to manage two incredibly skilled thieves.

I could already see my future annoyances, which I will likely push off onto Kal since he decided on recruiting them.

But as long as he properly directs their… endeavors, I think these two would be very useful.

Honestly speaking, both their opinions were quite valued thanks to their experiences in the dark side of society. It allowed for my plans to move forward much smoother than I had originally predicted, meaning with fewer direct interactions.

Just in time for the century to turn and the assassination of one Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, sparking The Great War, only later known as World War I.

Now, when the history books say this war encompassed all, it wasn't kidding.

As a result of the ever escalating conflict, demigods, Sacred Gear users, blessed individuals, humans with varied heritages and even supernaturals in disguise all began to pop up like weeds in the chaos.

This sent the forces keeping the relative peace in the supernatural world rushing to contain everything, but then even more joined in the 'fun'.

Devils were sneaking out and making a mess in some parts of Germany, Vampires were going wild in around their country, fallen were either tracking down Gears or messing around, with a faction under Kokabiel doing its best to 'savor' this war as the fool challenged those he could, gods of war were positively orgasmic, and other divines simply wanted more death and chaos.

The church was stretched very thin in all this, with Heaven petitioning for assistance from Azaroth officially as a result it. Of course many who heard of this in the church grew outraged at asking 'devils' for help in keeping order and doing 'God's work'.

I couldn't give a shit about them being butt hurt.

I sent out Heltana and her Huntresses to keep the beasts and monsters of Europe in check, with Ciri and the Einzbern family as support.

Moka was to go contain the vampires to their country alongside her and Evangeline's 'clan'. We couldn't officially go into Romania because we hadn't truly been 'permitted', but we could certainly kill any vampire who tried to go out to have 'fun'.

Evangeline couldn't go due to being far too busy right now with Sera having to deal with the absolute disaster devils were making in this chaos. None had ever heard of subtlety and just wanted to enjoy themselves. But my wife was almost going on a warpath because many nobles were going up and taking humans or other beings as pure slaves back down to the Underworld, a forbidden practice since the fall of the Old Satans. Even Zekram Bael knew this wasn't something which was to be left unchecked, but his faction was also responsible for a lot of the fuckery, wasting my wife's time fixing this issue.

Beyond that, I sent out Diana, Medea and Musashi to Asia, with Scarlet and her Legion. That place was going to be a mess and I wanted to make sure the Hindu and Shinto didn't get any bad blood between each other. The trio would assist the local church forces, which were much smaller in those countries obviously, while also going out to help locals and setting up refugee camps.

Amaterasu has said she doesn't desire this expansion the Japanese wish for, but she couldn't exactly do anything about it except have us and Yasaka put the Clans on lockdown. We did not need a bunch of elitist assholes running around using divinely gifted abilities and Spirits to invade other countries.

Secretly however, i had my people begin spreading my influence in Korea by aiding the people during the brutal occupation by the Japanese. Mana was responsible for overseeing things and establishing our presence firmly here. I trusted her more than enough to handle this and the subsequent developments in Southeast Asia that would occur in World War II. I wanted to make sure to have a hand in the Triads, especially after the fall of Chinese Pantheon and subsequent absorption by the Hindus, and most groups which would undergo significant changes and development after the socio-political transformation the next century would bring.

Globalization was something I was going to take advantage of in order to at least mitigate the worst parts of it.

Kal, with his own peerage and Legion, alongside Milim, would head to the Middle East. The Ottoman Empire was a great source of concern as it was and many old races resided in the region, alongside much of the earliest human myths, thus making it a potential danger.

And finally, Scáthach, Altera and Jeanne would handle the African continent alongside a few Legions led by Thillis.

In addition, I actually sent Quetzalcoatl to monitor South America due to her bond with the land still being strong thanks to the efforts put in place since her recruitment to maintain her culture and history on Earth. Even if it was technically in the Underworld for most of it. She was also technically in charge of looking over the North American continent, but that was left more to our Native American agents already in place since the war shouldn't directly reach that side of the planet anyway.

I didn't really mention Da Vinci because she was busy with her roles in Azaroth and helping me keep an eye on the Fallen from inside as Azazel keeps inviting her over to 'work on projects together'. A very nerdy way of trying to get more opportunities to enter her heart. And funnily enough, it would seem that this has made Ajuka jealous somehow, with him also starting to do similar things and sparking a weird competition between the geniuses.

Really fun to watch and to have Sera tease the Satan.

As for myself, I couldn't personally move outside my territory right now due to my current position on this world. A Top Ten being can't just wonder around the territories of others without any sort of permission, the risks were far too great. I think only Thor regularly does this, much to Odin's chagrin, but all gods know of his temperament and personality already so there isn't much worry about his presence beyond a bit of destruction they can leverage for benefits from the Norse. Meanwhile, I was the power behind the Neutral Ground and thus could not intervene in matters unless requested or absolutely necessary in times such as this. The only reason I could do openly move my troops and 'peerage' was due to Heaven's direct request, likely to have been more of Gabriel's request that her brothers agreed to since my involvement would truly help their stretched out numbers.

This doesn't mean I was simply directing operations in the human world, I was also very busy dealing with the immense number of refugees created by these conflicts.

Either because they came by their own volition or due to someone guiding them here, beings of all shapes, sizes and pantheons were coming to Azaroth for safety with the help of Anne and Mary's Black Pearl. The ship allowed for thousands to come in with every trip thanks to the manipulated space within and its abilities.

Because of this, the entirety of Azaroth's workforce was temporarily mobilized to create proper towns, villages and cities for all these refugees. I wanted things to be properly done at our standards to display the lengths Azaroth goes to in order to fulfill its promises as a safe haven. These wars were the perfect opportunity to turn Azaroth into something akin to an untouchable haven simply thanks to our reputation instead of my power.

Respect over fear, but with some fear present all the same to maintain said respect. Because without my power to back up the respect, others will covet Azaroth, so with both I became near untouchable.

In fact, after these two wars, I believe only the fools linked to the Khaos Brigade will ever have the guts to even try touching Azaroth. And this is solely because it will become a symbol of peace and unity in a sense.

Thinking of them, I'll have to have Ophis become their figure head once she 'matures' enough to just act like her old self in a controlled manner. She'll just show up from time to time, give them some 'snakes', let them use her name in order to gather everyone who needs purging, then get delicious treats as a reward for her 'hard work'. But that's all for later.

For now I simply made sure to move everything along.

To help I also decided to bring about a 'Charity Fundraiser' for those affected by the conflicts and to 'support those helping the ones in need' by holding some concerts and events with Devil's Heart. Sera and Gabby really wanted to participate, but both were far too busy as leaders of the largest factions after all. (Not strongest, but the Christian Pantheon should have the most in terms of numbers and area of impact.)

Sera and her peerage were all over the place trying to maintain strained relationships. Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Marie Antoinette were preoccupied with their aforementioned tasks, but their actions reflected very well on Serafall regardless. Perseus and Caenis were mainly working around the Mediterranean with Greeks, Church, Egyptian and Middle Eastern coastal forces thanks to their powers. Brunhild and Elsa were mainly working Northern and Eastern Europe, with the Norse and Church due to their pasts. Evangeline and Tamamo were in the East to make sure things didn't go badly between the Asian Pantheons and then with the Underworld as Sera's most trusted peerage members. And finally Rachel was stationed in America while Gwen was keeping an eye on the forces in France and England as Serafall goes all over the place.

It was obviously very stressful for my lovely wife, which is why she made her appreciation for my abilities to manipulate [Time] so she can properly rest and relax very clear. Alongside all my other women since they are all used to getting spoiled by me when it comes to snuggle time and the pleasures of the flesh. Including Gabriel and Yasaka, who visit during the nights thanks to having capable help/subordinates.

There was actually only one event during this war that personally affected House Azaroth, not negatively, since a new member joined after nearly two decades, but this time it was for Serafall's Peerage, hence a bigger deal in the Underworld as a whole when one Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova became my wife's second Rook.

Going back a bit to explain things.

After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Serbia, by a Serbian, Austria-Hungary, the archduke's country, blamed Serbia and eventually declared war on them after their harsh demands for compensation were rejected. As a result, Serbia's ally, Russia, joined the war around the same time as Germany, Austria-Hungary's ally, did. But, Russia was also allied with France and England, eventually leading to both joining the conflict and forcing both sides to look for more allies until it truly became a 'World War'.

Now, because of the alliances in place, Germany was stuck with enemies on two fronts; France and Russia, with others supporting the fight from those two countries. This was a problem for Germany, so some time into the war they decided to attempt a form of sabotage against one side to reduce the pressure on them, thus they sent Vladimir Lenin to Russia in the hopes of causing an internal crisis.

This plan actually succeeded for quite some time as Lenin, communists, anti-tsarists, and many other groups eventually overthrew the ruling family of Russia. But later the communist took full control of Russia's heartlands, suppressing other groups.

During this time, the Tsar(Emperor), Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov or Nicholas II, and his family, his wife, son and four daughters, including Anastasia, were imprisoned in an isolated merchants home named the Ipatiev House, located in the city of Yekaterinburg.

Unfortunately for the Tsar and his family, many outside the heartlands of Russia didn't like the communists in power, beginning a Civil war between the communist Red Army and the allied capitalist, monarchist and democratic supporting White army.

This was bad for the Tsar because in July 1918, reports of the White Army approaching Yekaterinburg were received by the guards in charge of the Tsar and his family.

The guard commander then made the decision to have his men wake the prisoners, bring them to the basement and then execute them so they would never have the opportunity to threaten the communist revolution by being alive.

What he couldn't have known at the time however was that Anastasia was much more than just a girl. She not only had a large gathering of the bloodlines of Tsars, the original ones who carved the beginnings of Russia through might and magic, granting her great potential in magic and a much stronger body than any average human, but she also had precognitive abilities she usually thought of has simple dreams.

So when she was brought down with her family, like she had a nightmare about, she was panicking until the guards began opening fire on everyone, causing her to completely lose it and unleashing the next thing which made her a special girl: the Independent Avatar Type Sacred Gear, Viy.

This cruel event caused her newly awakened Sacred Gear to go berserk and slaughter all those around her in rage as it fed from the turmoil and emotions of its user, tearing apart those who hurt her and destroying everything in its path as the girl blankly stared at the bleeding bodies of her family, covered in red.

Serafall, who just so happened to have been negotiating with the Orthodox Church in Russia due to its civil war and issues caused by devils during this time, felt the release of ice and snow attuned mana. She investigated until she found the destroyed house with only the basement still in some recognizable shape.

Inside she found the pretty young girl with Snow White hair, icy blue eyes filled with silent tears, wearing a simply white dress stained with red at the bottom, being protective encircled by a large shadowy being as she blankly looked at dead bodies.

According to Sera, the shadow, who we later found out was the Viy Sacred Gear, attacked her to protect its little mistress, not that it could do anything in the face of Sera's overwhelming power. My wife just froze the thing without harming it before taking the child into her arms and hugging her into her bosom to give her warmth and comfort over what she was able to deduce happened.

My wife then contacted me to figure what truly happened, and by the time I had arrived, Anastasia had exhausted her mana and fallen asleep in Sera's arms. I showed us what happened by opening a window in time, resulting in Sera becoming very protective of the young girl and bringing her with us.

The poor girl was predictably traumatized by the events leading to her awakening her powers, resulting in her putting up a very cold front to everything and everyone, but she seemed to have a particular hatred/fear for humans, communists and 'red'.

Thankfully Sera had at least formed a sort of gap by being the one to console her and offer her warmth and safety, with being non-human helping quite a lot as well, thus placing herself as Anastasia's emotional and psychological pillar for her recovery.

If we were being honest, Anastasia's situation was almost a higher priority in House Azaroth than even my plans. I have always thought of my family first and then the world. I want to do good, but I would not repeat my mistakes from my last life even if it makes me reshuffle my plans. So the many women of Azaroth put quite a bit of time to make the poor girl feel welcomed and cared for.

It was only a few years after the war ended, with the help of Ophis, Marie, Euryale and Stheno, that the girl managed to properly start getting out of her shell. Then Tamamo and Da Vinci found her to have the free spirit of a little prankster inside her, helping Anastasia further in recovering as Sera and I took over as parental figures.

The girl even decided to join Devil's Heart because of this, granting the group a cold beauty type.

As for the aftermath of the First World War, it was varied depending on the region, but was overall incredibly good for Azaroth.

Thanks to my plans, I've properly set myself and my people in position to steadily grow until WW2 exploded and they could grasp a lot more strength.

Many new criminals and exiles were announced as crimes were discovered and committed, with people also clashing ideologies and leaving their organizations.

The refugee situation stabilized as we gained over half a million new permanent residents, with even a few peaceful life seeking gods settling down or at least getting homes in Azaroth.

But in a more personal matter, Florence Nightingale officially reincarnated as a semi-divine Devil because of the changes in the evil piece.

She instantly returned to her peak, which turns out gave her the looks of a beautiful and buxom no-nonsense woman with long braided sliver pink hair and red eyes. She chose to wear a red military coat in the style of England's officers with a black skirt with res trim for ease of movement, white combat boots and gloves. And once she fully activated her sacred gear, her left harm was covered by something resembling a black and gold metal scorpion tail/snake and gained a staff with a large scalpel-like edge.

The woman only reincarnated in 1920, doing what she could to help in recovery efforts after the war ended, and now she was ready to start her new life. This meant throwing herself in her studies like a woman possessed.

Really reminded me of Da Vinci, Medea and even Scáthach to a lower degree, but fully focusing on everything related to medicine and health.

Such studies involved everything from potions, surgeries and purely scientific medicine, but also physical development, psychological health, diet, exorcise and even learning about magic, martial arts and poisons to understand more.

Florence was incredibly dedicated to helping others as she travelled constantly to the newly established refugee villages/towns/cities to both confirm and test what she learnt.

This didn't mean the woman wasn't being trained to acceptable standards in combat by myself, Scáthach, Diana, Medea and various other sources. Luckily Florence was easily convinced to increase her strength to keep herself alive to save more people, subdue difficult/dangerous individuals, and to improve her options in 'treating' individuals.

All of this blended very well with the advantages and abilities her Gear offered alongside her naturally high talents in these fields being released by me. Asclepius' Rod itself gave its wielder an instinctive understanding and usage of medical and poison arts, allowed the user to manipulate its own cells as well as others nearby and could create an area of healing dubbed 'field hospital' by Nightingale.

Overall a very good gain to have such a dedicated healer in my immediate group. In fact, having Asclepius' Rod in her helped Florence develop her divinity at a very fast rate for things like medicine and healing, so I decided to help by using the divine spirits of Mayan/Aztec gods of healing and medicine Ixtlilton and Patecatl, and a few from the recently fallen Chinese Pantheon such as the deified Baosheng Dadi and the goddess Jiutian Xuannü.

Beyond the stuff at home, the world was recovering for the most part.

China, Russia and Germany were going to go through major changes relatively soon enough, Italy would begin Fascism thanks to Mussolini, Japan's expansionist desires would erupt and Hitler was already beginning his career outside the military itself because of the heavy restrictions placed on Germany forcing a drastic reduction in their standing army.

Technology would continue to develop, tensions return and once again the world began falling into chaos.

Now, after the Great War, the Einzbern family held an impressive amount of power in both sides of the world. For the mundane they were a reclusive noble family which held many mountains in northern Germany, but also secretly held many key properties and locations which would gain even more value as time passed. In the supernatural world, the Einzbern were officially considered a highest tier human organization like Mephisto Pheles' Grauzauberer, but secretly they were the strongest 'human' force and had a great deal of respect for being the contracted magicians of House Azaroth.

As such, they would be in a perfect position to secretly help mitigate the coming atrocities which would be inflicted on not just Jews, but also the many minorities targeted by the Nazi regime. I would not stand by and let the Holocaust happen and for myself to be inactive.

The plan currently in action had our hidden operatives, double agents, industry plants and direct forces set up a grand network in any sort of camp, town and city to switch those who would die with rapidly created clones that can be killed in lieu of the originals.

It won't save everyone obviously, but by taking DNA samples of every prisoner and then creating a switch mechanic using my [Space/Time] alongside Medea's ritualistic mastery and Einzbern ressources to save as many as possible. After being saved, the people would live in pre-made towns within the Einzbern mountains and protected until the end of the war.

Everyone not affiliated with Azaroth or Einzbern would obviously be put under magical contracts using their DNA to keep our secrecy during and after the war since those who would have no desire to stay in the mountainous towns will be free to leave.

Unfortunately I couldn't do anything nearly as large scaled to prepare China and the SouthEast Asian countries for the incoming invasions from Japan. The only forces I could truly rely on were the criminal organizations I had taken and formed as well as some things I could implement when my people were stationed there.

All of this wasn't done purely out of selfless reasons. I would be using this opportunity to search trough millions over the next decade, unrestrained by any other forces, seeing if any useful Sacred Gear, heroic/divine bloodlines we didn't possess, possible agents and to further improve Azaroth's standing in the world.

And so when the rapid rise of Hitler occurred, Mussolini took power and they began to act, Azaroth was ready.

I have to say however, that with my somewhat outsider perspective on matters, it is hard to outright declare which war was worst in terms of the battlefield. WW2 saw a great leap in military technology as weapons began getting closer to the levels I knew, air combat became much more prominent, tanks became a key tool and tactics began evolving away from trench warfare, thus things were more dynamic as people died in more active ways, but the WW1 trench warfare was simply a horrid way to fight a war as disease ran rampant, conditions were almost worst than before Nightingale went to the Crimean war, and wave after wave of men were sent to their death to achieve minimal gains.

Outside the battlefield though, it was obvious that the ideologies present during WW2 vastly outstripped the damages caused by the political clusterfuck which made WW1 so widespread.

I could understand why the Nazi ideologies worked.

To unify humans one needs a target to focus all their dark and chaotic emotions and thoughts, that which bars cooperation, hence Jews and other minorities were targeted. Jews were always viewed unfavorably and usually had at least a good number of very successful individuals, hence antisemitism has been part of people at a near subconscious level because of jealousy and a sense of 'superiority', so they made an appealing target. Then came desires for 'revenge' on those who brought Germany to the brink of total collapse after the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria) lost. You break down 'dissenting' factors, give people something to strive towards, focus their efforts and maximize your resources and then break forth with a United strength under one leading direction to achieve more than a single country should be able to.

This is actually very similar to my own methods, even if I use a much softer approach with long term goals instead of brute forcing everything for rapid success. The biggest reason for why they would fail was simply because Hitler's 'ideal race' just isn't sustainable in the first place and Nazies would eventually be overthrown regardless of their 'superiority'. That being just the mundane side, because even with the supernaturals helping them, once any of the real powerhouses decide that enough is enough, the Nazies would end.

In fact, I was already preparing for that scenario as my own powers grow daily thanks to Azarath's massive growth over the last near century under accelerated time. So alongside my Pantheon and people, I believe that I could take on the world if necessary and if my actions have somehow caused too many changes.

Luckily though, things were kept in balance as I stayed away from any form of direct conflict.

WW2 was happening about the same way as I remembered from all the history classes which basically ignore pretty much the rest of history for it half the time. Except this time supernatural artifacts were real, magic was real, Sacred Gears were actually God-given and Adolf Hitler was a son of Hades because he cucked Aloïs Hitler as he fucked/married his own cousin once removed.

At least I didn't have to feel bad about not neutering Alois since it shouldn't have stopped Adolf from being born anyway.

Over the course of the war, Azaroth acted pretty similarly to how we did during the previous one, generally offering sanctuary and helping keep a general peace on our side of things.

A few major differences were the increase in Pantheons asking for direct assistance and the great amount of people supporting the Nazi, Fascist and Imperial forces as exiled or runaway exorcists and priests helped the Nazies in their 'pious' work and the Italian regime because of their nationalistic views, Norse agents joined mainly out of battle lust, and many Principal Clan members disobeyed Amaterasu's orders as they went to commit atrocities around the pacific, other Asian countries and even attempting to attack Yasaka's faction.

As a result of all these fools, Michael actually smote the pope and cardinals who supported the Nazies and let people who should be devoted to doing good for mankind, slaughter and torture hundreds of thousands of innocents. Yasaka and the Youkai got to have some well deserved fun from hunting down all the traitors to the Shinto gods. And Odin directly had joint operations between the Valkyries, Hel's Huntresses and Scarlet's Adventurer's Guild to control his own messes that Loki was obviously helping create.

And during this whole mess, my son decided to go and recruit Nikola Tesla out of nowhere as his bishop. He said that it was because he heard me talk about the man's brilliant mind even if he was somewhat damaged as a person due to his life. Kal thought he could become something akin to his own Da Vinci since we could help him recover, mind, body and soul, while also giving him a lot of freedom to create and funding/resources to do so.

Ultimately, I didn't see much of a problem for now. I had some reservations towards Tesla due to what I knew about him from my first life, but I will trust my son.

As for my own sudden action, I took the liberty to go observe the famous Vasco Strada vs. Kokabiel fight as well.

It was funny to watch the ever arrogant crow slowly lose out to the very buff, tall and bald, holy sword wielder, but I do have to say Strada impressed me with how far he's come in the last half century. I, of course, recorded everything so Azazel, myself and a number of associates could enjoy holding this over the pointy eared hothead's head and laugh at his misery. The fight itself was still 'epic' in scale and impact of course, even if I had already long left behind that level, with Strada displaying incredible levels of Touki, Holy energy and swordsmanship as he fought against the fallen's good use of large scale light magic and his own innate abilities.

After the fight, Azazel came personally to wipe his old comrade's ass and negotiate with the Church/Heaven. I decided to go talk a bit to Strada since it had been quite some time.

I was glad to see the man hadn't lost himself in his strength nor the pursuit of it, keeping his compassionate and pious heart even in the face of decades of work as an exorcist. We had a pleasant chat and I even told him about the fact that little Jack was actually about to be properly reborn since Ereshkigal had finally gotten pregnant, surprising him greatly, but then he heartily laughed and asked to come visit her once she was born, something I accepted knowing his character.

The fight between the fallen and exorcist was pretty much the last big one for the supernatural world's side. Things had become far too disadvantageous for the Axis Powers as we entered 1945, so Kokabiel, who wanted to extended the fighting, tried to spark more conflicts on the supernatural side to fan the flames on the mundane one, but Strada stopped him and ended his plans.

As a result, things swiftly deteriorated with the Allies pushing back the Axis forces on all fronts. By the end of April 1945, Mussolini was killed by an Italian resistance movement and Hitler and his wife killed themselves.

A week later Germany surrender unconditionally, with only a central army resisting for a few days afterwards.

On the Japanese front, I had warned Yasaka about the American plans to drop atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as my success in protecting the people there with the support of Amaterasu and her brothers. Yasaka knew of the destructive might of such a bomb because of Da Vinci and the creation of Godzilla, so she took the threat seriously as she explained what these bombs were to her people.

Tired of the current mentality of the Japanese, the Shinto siblings wanted their people to have a wake up call, so they decided to allow these bombs to serve as a 'disaster', but if lives could be saved they would obviously be on board, so we worked together to secure the innocent people and prepare 'new lives' for the residents of both cities using mind magic and a bit of my Sacred Gear in secret. Enough lives had been lost in this war.

And so, in August, the bombs dropped and the Allied forces crushed the major forces of the Japanese, forcing them to surrender on the 19th of August 1945, and officially ending the war when papers were signed on the 2nd of September.

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EXTRA AUTHOR NOTES:

Both World Wars powered through!

I know these chapters aren't the funnest since I can't go into big details, but I think they can also be informative for Lith's movements and impacts on the world as well as a bit of history for the heck of it.

But yeah, outside the war stuff I glossed over since Lith and his people actually shouldn't be involving themselves directly unless requested and such, some recruitment happened.

I though Kal needed some male friends since Lith has people like Sirzechs, Ajuka, now Azazel, the Shinto gods, some Greek ones and whatnot, so I got Sherlock Holmes and Arsène Lupin to come in since Lupin vs Holmes could be considered one of the oldest fanfictions, then have Holmes fate Helena and Irene Adler for a fun little love triangle. Sherlock is the Fate version and the events for his and Irene's recruitments were from the Robert Downey Jr version, Game of Shadows. And since so many people wanted Tesla, well Fate Tesla be joining as Kal's bishop since I don't particularly care for the man even though he was a genius.

Next we have Anastasia Romanov becoming Sera's rook, making her Peerage almost complete. I already have the last two members chosen for that and they won't appear until Sera becomes a magical girl.

As for the new Rook, I used the way Viy acts in FGO and how Independent Avatar types came reinforce their wielders or become one with them, alongside her talents which had laid dormant within her blood, to train her into a powerful physical force in a style slightly similar to how Koneko somehow became a rook.

Then Florence Nightingale officially reincarnated, having her Fate appearance but different enough personality because she's not a freaking berserker. She was an intelligent, driven, confident and compassionate woman who likely achieved more off the battlefield than on it.

Her abilities are different from Asia as a healer because they don't just work on the vague concept of 'healing', but require one to be a 'healer' to administer the correct 'medicine', with the Gear simply giving access to more of its abilities as the person grows more capable/knowledgeable while it offers an edge in learning and instincts on how to best use the available tools to help others. The offensive sides come from the belief that poison and medicine can sometimes only be differentiated by the measurements and due to Asclepius' connection to snakes.

And finally, yes Eresh is finally pregnant and Jack will be born soon enough. I kind of delayed it inadvertently. Gabriel will follow soon as she didn't believe it was the right time of have a child when the world was tearing itself apart, but she won't be able to wait after things calm down enough.

Anyway, hope this was still somewhat enjoyable.